A Good Online Resource on Plagiarism

If you are wondering what the difference is between original research and plagiarism, there is a good web site that explains plagiarism in detail, and how to avoid it. Purdue University's guide to plagiarism can be found at the following address:

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/589/01

I think you will find this web site helpful when you are assigned a term paper, and have to quote or cite sources for research.

Keyword Searching in the OPAC

Last week I discussed searching the library's OPAC according to subject, but this week I will touch upon keyword searching. Unlike subject headings, books and other media are not indexed with keywords. However, keyword searching is a much more flexible method of locating books and other materials. Keyword searching can be useful when you can't remember the exact title of a book. For example, if you have a fuzzy idea that Maya Angelou wrote a book with a caged bird in the title, but can't recall the title word for word, you can type "caged" and "bird" in the search field, and it might retrieve "I Know When the Caged Bird Sings" by Maya Angelou, if the library has the book.

Another advantage of keyword searching is that you can locate books using jargon and buzz words if no subject headings have been created yet with those terms in mind. In databases that use Boolean connectors such as "AND" "OR" and "NOT" keyword searching is especially versatile, and can be used to find very specific books. For example, if you need to find information on Norse mythology but not Greek and Roman (classical) mythology, you could type in the keywords "Norse," "mythology," and "classical." You would then choose the AND connector between "Norse" and "mythology" and choose the NOT connector for "classical." This will bring up all the books on Norse mythology that the library may have, while excluding books on Greek and Roman myths, so you won't have to sort through as many results to get what you need.

There is a disadvantage to keyword searching that you must look out for: false drops. Last week I briefly mentioned that using a keyword such as "Mars" could retrieve anything from books on the planet, the Roman god, or even science fiction novels about Mars. If you are only looking for information on the planet itself, then books about the Roman god known as "Mars" are the false drops that you don't want, because they are irrelevant to what you are looking for. Whenever you search for books in an OPAC, you must keep in mind the various advantages and disadvantages of each search strategy, whether it is with keywords, subject headings, or other methods.

Subject searching in the OPAC

In the library's OPAC (Online Public Access Catalog) there is an option to search for books according to subject. When you do a subject search, the OPAC will find books that have been cataloged with the subject headings that the book happens to be classified under. For example, the book "Data Structures and the Java Collections Framework" has the subject headings "Java (Computer program language)" and "Data Structures (Computer science)."

There are a lot of advantages to searching with subject headings. With subject headings, you can find many similar books even if the authors have used different terminology to describe them. Subject headings are devised in a logical manner, and are arranged according to whether the headings are related terms, narrower in focus or broader in focus, which could help you conduct more precise research. And although keyword searching is very versatile, using a keyword search can yield many irrelevant results if not done carefully. For example, using a keyword such as "Mars" could find books about the planet Mars, the Roman god of the same name, or even a music CD by the rock band called "30 seconds to Mars."

There are advantages to both subject heading and keyword searching. Next week I will discuss keyword searching in more detail.